A GLORIOUS late summer’s evening greeted drivers, teams and fans as they gathered at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this past Saturday for the only stock car event in Central Scotland on Saturday evening, writes our Raceway scribe Les Waller.

Championship fever continued at HRP Lochgelly Raceway with the Stock Rods taking top billing last Saturday as a good field of cars arrived to contest their Scottish Championship.

It was great to see Kelty’s John-Lee Green back on track while fellow Fifers, John and Ryan Venters, were making their first appearances of the season. The grid would be determined by way of two heats with the second heat starting with the drivers in the reverse order from heat one.

Heat One saw defending champion, Siobhan Martin, start on pole but former champion Chris Lattka did not take long to overhaul her lead and Martin’s challenge in this race ended early as she parked her Corsa C on the infield.

Lattka was not to be caught and he claimed an excellent win ahead of his brother and another former Scottish Champion Jonathan with Cowdenbeath pilot Garry Gilfillan coming home in an impressive third.

The second heat saw the Lattka brothers make their way to the front of the field in short shift and, while Chris was given the victory initially after Jonathan was docked for an earlier incident, video reviews showed that Jonathan was not guilty of any offence. This meant that Chris and Jonathan Lattka had scored the same number of points and a coin toss gave the inside pole position to Chris with Jonathan on his outside while 2016 rookie Gary Dean would start the championship race alongside Gilfillan on row two with Alana Cuthbert and defending champion Siobhan Martin on row three. The Lattka brothers shot off as the green flag fell with the duo putting on an exhibition of stock rod racing as they battled side by side lap after lap while Gary Dean carried on serenely in third.

Despite being pressured for the entire 25 lap race, Chris Lattka maintained his composure to take an excellent win ahead of Jonathan Lattka and Gary Dean to claim the title of 2016 Stock Rod Scottish Champion on a great night of Stock Rod racing.

The Ninja Karts were making their fifth appearance in as many weeks after a hugely busy spell for the formula, but another good grid of cars arrived to do battle. Significantly, this would be the last time that fans at HRP Lochgelly Raceway would be able to enjoy watching Logan Tweedie race as he will be too old to race the Junior class the next time they are racing at HRP.

The same can also be said for Lochgelly’s own Callum Brown who was also taking in his last Ninja Kart meeting before “retirement”.

Callum was one of the original “Gang of Six” who took part in the first ever Ninja Kart meeting in Scotland and he has been a positive influence and a stalwart of the formula ever since.

Methil’s Jase Walle got off to a winning start as he edged out Lucy Millar in the whites and yellows race with Kyle Johnstone claiming third by just 0.082 seconds from Callum Brown.

Scott Allardyce kept his recent good form going as he took the win in heat one ahead of Logan Tweedie and Ethan Doull. West Lothian’s Doull made no mistakes in heat two as he took a fine win with Robbie Armit and Harry Robertson rounding out the top three.

Doull clearly enjoyed his victory in heat two as he went on to double up in heat three with another win in what has been a great season for the youngster as he edged out Scottish and British Champion Charlie Hardie and Lucy Millar.

Another great evening of Ninja Kart racing and huge credit to all teams, especially those who have managed to race in five consecutive meetings.

The 2.0 Hot Rods were back on track and many eyes were focused on the stunning new Citroen Saxo that was debuted by Gill Anderson, of Dunblane, which went some way to explaining his recent absence!

The first heat of the evening was claimed by the on-form Alex Wilson ahead of British Champion Kenny Purdie and Jock Campbell. The second heat was another frenetic race and it was Kirkliston’s Jock Campbell who came out on top ahead of Anderson and Gordon Hendry.

The feature final was another great race to watch as the track conditions enabled the drivers to utilize the full power of their amazing machines and it was Campbell who managed to get ahead of the pack after eventually overhauling early leader Iain Bruce and remain there to the end despite the very close attentions of Gordon Alexander and Gerry Hendry with the drivers putting on an exhibition of the great non-contact racing over the final laps of the race.

The Superstox returned for their first event since their fantastic Dechmont Forklift Trucks World Championship weekend a fortnight ago and it was great to see a very healthy number of cars in the pits including debutants Jordan Black and Jack Turbitt.

The first heat was an absolutely brilliant race with action at every corner and Chris Miller made most of the running in this one but David Frame was closing in as the laps wound down and put in a big hit on the last corner to beat Miller to the line by a tiny fraction! Miller made no mistakes in heat two as he stayed ahead of the field to take a great win ahead of Scottish Champion Bryan Forrest and heat one winner Frame. The feature final was another exceptional race with Miller again getting his nose in front but the dream of a heat and final double for Miller was not to be as David Frame claimed his own race-winning double with Forrest taking another second place with Mark Brady in an impressive third to finish a great night of Superstox action.

Championship fever continues at HRP Lochgelly Raceway this coming weekend as the Big Van Bangers contest their Scottish Championship with well in excess of twenty vans currently scheduled to do battle! They will be supported by the Stock Rods, CC Rods and incredible Ministox at HRP Lochgelly Raceway on Saturday September 17 from 6pm.